All About Marketing

All About Marketing

Telling Your Municipality’s Story

As part of your Economic Development Marketing Plan, here are five key steps to keep in mind when preparing to tell your municipality’s story.

Do the research

Building on the work of your economic development strategy, further research can be undertaken to determine gaps in your current marketing efforts, and uncover specific business needs – and opportunities.

Have a story to tell

Start with highlighting your key economic indicators: what are the community’s main strengths? What is the main benefit of your community’s location? Is it the resilient nature of your people? The stunning natural features? A location critical to regional development?

Tell it well

Always lead with benefits, of course. But different audiences have different needs, and messages must be developed that will strike a chord with their intended target. Having a strong brand is part of telling it well. It also means supporting the message with well-designed and creative materials, grabbing the attention of the recipient so he or she can see value in reading further.

Tell it often

Marketing studies show that responses increase when an integrated, coordinated, multi-channel approach is taken. Beyond simply purchasing media space or posting social media entries, there needs to be a process for keeping the marketing program on the rails.

Build the relationship

This is the punch line: creating and nurturing those contacts with whom you expect to do business – whether it is a prospect, an industry representative or influencer.

Keeping these five steps in mind will help you develop a compelling story about your community – and lead to the long-term relationships you’re seeking.